Thanks folks who have read, played, and run this for helping me with a spoiler-free question.
I have a chance to be a player in Carrion Crown. I’m looking at the Occultist with the Haunt Collector archetype.
It’s super flavorful in a way that sounds relevant to this AP! But. The archetype gives up class features in exchange for things that specifically deal with haunts. I’m just worried since the AP determines how many haunts there are that I’ll end up trading out a class feature I could use constantly for a cool scene that happens a few times.
The first book is called Haunting of Harrowstone, so that sounds promising. But does it drop off?
I guess flip side question too. Would having a PC never surprised by haunts and able to easily ask them questions and negate them ruin the fun too much?
This question is for GMs and players, so please use relevant spoiler tags in your responses.
I've got a slow but steady game group with a shared Golarion that we shape as we play the APs, PFS scenarios or modified versions of the official content that fits how our world is growing.
I'll be running Tyrant's Grasp - just years from now ;)
We are going to be playing around Belkzen Hold, Ustalav, River Kingdoms, the Worldwound/Mendev and of course Varisia in the meantime with at least mentions of Nirmathis and Lastwall.
What names would you name drop? Allies, foes, organizations? What places would you have our table visit? What NPCs would you let show up early to have a richer presence, or what locations deserve an earlier time on camera before they are spotlighted in this AP?
My table definitely prefers time for names and places to sink in to utter surprises. They get a kick out of easter eggs, and hearing something a second time helps them pay attention. They know it's important and not a GM throwaway random generated name. They definitely like revisiting locations. All this assuming there's new content mixed in of course. Think of it as a chance to master a location and then feel confident playing there in the future.
So while I'm still at the reins, how shall I set us all up for success and bring in some foreshadowing and introductions?
I've got two rules questions, which are both worth solving on their own for upcoming game adjudication.
The Lore Needle (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/h-l/lore-needle/) has a d20 roll for the heal skill check to use it.
Is this roll
1) Abstracting the mundane skill of a heal check needed to position the needle
Or is this
2) Activation of a magic item, where the use activation is a heal skill check
Related, but also worth discussing on it's own. Anyone want to share their clarification on what kind of actions you can aid another with? The core rule book mentions "In many cases, a character’s help won’t be beneficial, or only a limited number of characters can help at once." But there's really no list of examples, and I can't find lists of skill uses including (Aid another? y/n) categories to learn from. There are plenty of things that describe how people can help with this exact situation. For example, how many characters fit to overcome the DC to open a door in an AP, how multiple casters contribute in ritual magic, or aid another for attack or AC in combat. Do we assume if there aren't rules for how it is actively allowed, then the answer is no, no aid another is allowed here?
Let's go back to our lore needle and think about how aid another is impacted by the type of action it needs. If it's a mundane heal check, you could start with Aid Another being allowed, because characters can aid with heal checks in general. Or you could argue that the needle is so small that the 'limited number of characters can help at once' factors in and you can't use aid another. After that it's just GM fiat, and I'd like to build up a library of things you can and can't aid another on for examples if there's no rules here.
If the Lore Needle is a magic item that you activate with your heal check, then the core rule book clearly states that you can't use aid another. Only the character activating a magic device can make the check to activate it.
Quick context. My party is purposefully playing Wrath of the Righteous as 'scoundrels with hearts of gold' rather than proper crusaders. We started our game in the Waller slum and ended up in the crusade to have crimes pardoned.
Keeping with that trope, the party is sure they'll be blamed somehow for destroying the Wardstone line when they used the Rod of Cancellation on the Wardstone fragment in Kenabres. (And saved everyone and became mythic...) They're afraid of 'The Man' and want to run ahead to get work done and prove themselves more, and left Irabeth, Aravashinal, Anevia, etc behind to speak highly of them to the Queen and set up a future successful meeting together.
They're basically running ahead to Drezen without the official start to Book 2
So.
That brings up the question of how to introduce the three NPCs Queen Galfrey normally orders to go with the party.
Current plan:
Modify Wardstone Patrol (the PFS scenario). The party heads to the farming town north of Kenabres on the path Irabeth directed them to Drezen. Rescues Aron (and other farmers). Instead of the scenario going on to a fort and rescuing their lost crusaders, have Aron ask for help going after captives from the farming village. Including his love, Sosiel. Have Nurah among the crusaders the party rescues, and one who insists on coming with them after being useful in the fight.
It feels good for setting up Aron and Sosiel, but Nurah feels a bit like an 'also-ran' in this scenario. Good enough to be worth sharing in case anyone else out there needs the idea.
Thoughts? Opinions? Ways to improve? Better introduction opportunities I might not have thought of?
These days in the lore and setting, Nocticula is called the “Redeemer Queen” and has ascended to godhood.
But Sarenrae still has the portfolio of redemption.
I’m getting in way too many arguments from my players about this. That if they want redemption themes they still go to Sarenrae. Someone give me backup or tell me I’m wrong, but I’m tired of arguing that Nocticula isn’t the redemption goddess purely because some cultist (or writer ;) ) wanted to call her redeemer queen.
In my head, I’m explaining it with some of the freedom and self-determination of chaos. Nocticula wanted to be a deity and worked that out for herself. You can do you. And if you want to stop being evil, work that out for yourself. If you get kicked out for doing you, then she’s got a place for you as the goddess of exiles. But she’s not going to actually tell you to do better or handhold you through a redemption.
How do you all explain this? Am I the only one having to argue so hard for canon?
My players are interested in Kenabres. One of the questions I'm having trouble answering or preparing for is about the height of the district walls. Ideally the two walls that we'll spend the most time in Book 1 - so the Ring Wall and the wall around Old Kenabres.
I need to do some calculations based off these details. Like how much is the sunlight getting blocked before sunset for light sensitive creatures because of high walls. But mostly, they got it in their heads they want to scale a wall as high as they can and see who wins. And I need to know the max height of the wall, because I suspect once they determine if they can make it up high for fun, they'll start planning some off the wall schemes that involve the walls in the cult-controlled Old City.
Long story short, the art for Nualia's sword in Rise of the Runelords reminded us of art for Garvok. So I ended up GMing that it was, and my Rise party carried around an inactive Garvok all campaign. It was a great addition, especially for sympathy with Chellan.
Now we're on Return, and Alaznist is active with Garvok in play!
Even more interesting, the PC who chose to wield Garvok (and keep it close until they could figure out how to destroy it) was voted one of the Sihedron Heroes by the players in our session zero.
I'm interested in what you all would do with this.
In case someone else comes here for advice on this in the future. I'm currently picturing that Garvok's growing power was the draw that
Spoiler:
sent the Sihedron Heroes to Hollow Mountain in the first place
. I mean, they have the whole set up of being around to put down future Runelords as they arise. Going at strength before one of their number switches sides makes absolute sense.
The part I'm still thinking about is what happened next. Did Alaznist
Spoiler:
throw all the Sihedron heroes to get trapped in time together in one big, nonspecific move? That means her champion is also trapped in time, and not in play per the books. Or did she somehow separate out the hero holding her champion's sword.
Which means Alaznist has a champion in play for the rest of the campaign.
I'm inclined to say the first one, because it changes less of the campaign as written. The PCs can just be paranoid they're about to run into Garvok. And Alaznist would not have been happy having her supposed champion showing up to oppose her. Then it puts the burden on the current party
Spoiler:
in Crystilan to decide what to do about Garvok when the see the hero wielding it frozen there. Also it puts it's arrival in play very close to the Oliphant of Jandalay, so destroying Garvok is on the table.
Interested in hearing from anyone who has already run this AP, but also just folks who like brainstorming.
I have a Cheliaxian ex-slave halfling PC in my party, so I anticipate Corla is going to get more attention (and more questions) than most. I'd love your help to brainstorm a richer Corla backstory with me. Her character art screams plot hooks (eyepatch! and why is she still wearing rags if Viralane is such a prideful character? Wouldn't even her servant be better cared for?). She's likely to get left behind and interrogated by parties after Viralane's escape even for parties who aren't drawn to her earlier on.
Missing an eye can certainly speak to her former masters in Cheliax. There's a bit during dinner that says Corla is very self confident and not humble, so that takes out that logical explanation for her looks.
Currently thinking Corla was previously better cared for, and her clothes are a clue into the pair's lack of funds. Plus why Viralane never changes out of the one fancy costume she has left. Maybe the missing eye is from one of the rough places they performed to try and get around Viralane's curse, and can foreshadow Corla not letting her mistress stick around at all when Cracktooth's tavern turns sour on her.
Longtime Adventure Path DM here and... infrequent user of anything else.
My group is playing some of Second Darkness: Shadow in the Sky, which infamously goes off in another direction after helping the Gold Goblin casino in the first book.
Well. My party liked the competition with other gangs. The politicking. The outmaneuvering. The straight-up assaults on each other's holdings. They want to keep establishing a new faction in Riddleport. They also are very fond of allies they've made in the city who need someone to turn to besides gang bosses. The party doesn't like leaving Riddleport as-is, though they've properly taken the bait for the metaplot otherwise.
Anyone have any PFS scenarios, adventures, or other pre-written segments that can give me some more mileage on the establishment of a faction or gang warfare? This is not my wheelhouse for homebrewing it.
I think if I can get a little more going for them to be involved in, we can all set up some NPCs to take the lead there and let the PC party handle the big world-ending threats.
I've got an NPC group, some who are starting as clerics and inquisitors of Desna, some who are coming to this as just plain old people.
This group has been patrolling roads. Cleaning roads. Keeping back the encroachment of brush and fallen logs. Repairing roads that weather or tree roots or animals disrupt. They've made it possible for a road through a dangerous stretch of wilderness to stay active, and compete with river based merchants.
And now the story is they need to collect funding for this work.
Caring for themselves as an organization, plus the tools and materials to build and maintain trade routes takes gold!
So the group is now collecting tolls from the trade that gets to bypass barge fees.
I want to play with the line between 'we're doing the good work of Desna helping travelers and keeping them safe from the monsters of the wilderness' and 'we're shaking down merchant wagons for protection money when they're far away from town and no longer have a choice.'
Where would you draw the line of what Desna is happy with? Generally okay with? Maybe sending dreams to change the direction of your life? Is someone going to make themselves an ex-cleric by collecting tolls? By having a colleague they are affiliated with kill a traveler in collecting a toll?
There is the distinction between laymen (people just doing this as a job) and those who are using divine powers in the work running the roads of this trade route. Toll roads by regular people probably doesn't merit Desna's attention. The clerics though... I don't see anything that specifically says Desna is against toll roads, but I do see she values freedom. I'd love outside opinions.
Any other Syrinscape users around here? I miss having the custom sounds from APs like Rise of the Runelords leading up to my playthrough of Return.
I'm going to be making some custom soundsets for at least some of the scenes in Return of the Runelords. I'd love to share the crafting if anyone else is interested in the same. I'll post the soundsets I put together, and I'd love to see (hear?) if anyone else has some they're working on!
Here's what I'm working with so far (Link requires a Syrinscape account to interact with):
https://syrinscape.com/account/campaigns/47173-a7f220e583/
I feel like alignment is a harder and faster rule with dragons than with player characters, but I'd like some other Pathfinder (and Golarion) specific minds to think about how much wiggle room there might be on the alignment of chromatic dragons. Or expressed actions despite inherent alignment inclinations.
I'm thinking specifically of red dragons here. We know from Paizo sources that they're chaotic evil. They're the largest and most powerful chromatic dragons, and if one of them spares an innocent maiden from murder and consumption, it's because they like to enslave humans and elves as pretty, fragile additions to the hoard while they last. And then eat them later. So not exactly the gray area of gardening, academic greens.
Buuuuut. In social science and animal behavior, there's always a question of nature vs nurture. Is that something to consider for dragons raised in unusual circumstances? How much could their chaotic evil alignment be considered cultural or learned, and how much should we say at a certain age it's too big a part of them not to come out? Like when people try to raise wolves as if they were domestic dogs, it works until a certain age, but dragons are intelligent and can be reasoned with.
This is of course from a specific situation in my game:
Villains killed a mother Red and captured her youngsters. Heroes came along and killed the villains and freed the red youngsters. Also canonically, red dragons like taking out dragonslayers, so that was a point in favor of the heroes who put a stop to those dragonslayers and respected the reds. Because they were young and still at risk, the youngsters moved into a big city with the squishy mortal heroes and (said they would) accept compulsion spells for the safety of the city as willing conditions of being (served and) protected. At some point, they're going to be old enough to make the save. At some point it also might occur to a chaotic evil creature to go back on their word and not willingly accept compulsion spells. I'm just really wondering if it's completely implausible for either/both the modeled behavior of the heroes or the behavior modification of long term compulsion spells to have these particular young reds to grow up not chaotic evil and full of death and destruction.
I guess regardless of being stuck evil, there's always a chance even a chromatic dragon chooses to point their fire and brimstone elsewhere.
I'm daydreaming for when it's safe to have the group play in person together again and I'm making a plan for this cool map scroll I have. (I'ts a very long vinyl map showing a town from it's outer gates to inner castle in a big enough strip it rolls up at either end.)
Feel free to help me out, or just grab this idea for yourself later! I'm definitely going to play this out, but I have time before we get around to playing Ironfang. So let's brainstorm!
The scenario - our advancing horde (orcs in our case, but could be good zombie action too if someone wants to apply this plan to another adventure) is closing in and sweeping through, and the PCs need to help the citizens escape. Here are the details I'm fiddling with so far vs the books, in part just to highlight the gimmick of the long, rolled up map. It also changes the feel of the invading horde, but with my limited read through so far, I don't think that breaks anything.
Spoiler:
- Heroes can attack individual members of the horde, but they can't win that way, there's too many of them. Same as the books really, they WILL get overrun
- To up the overrun feeling for the scrolling map, this portion of the invasion is scary by sheer numbers, not personal strength. Minimal HP in exchange for increased numbers. So you can kill them, but it's only buying you time or clearing routes. And killing lots of numbers is fun!
- Orcs can attack and deal damage like normal, but I want the damage taken from engaging the horde to feel more like it's own 'clock' as the players take injuries to save people but can ignore it a little till it starts to add up. Would you change anything about the damage or to hit of the opponents?
- There are more buildings on my map, and I want the heroes to get to use that to personally be involved in the escape of more citizens. This one I wish I could playtest, so maybe post if you've tried something similar. Maybe just open the door and make a skill check to get them to start leaving? Maybe 'drop' orc minions in each building so the occupants can leave? Maybe hold a path clear for escape and each round the route is kept clear another person gets out? All of the above? Not sure. I want something that costs time so there might be parts where they have to decide to leave civilians, because we know not everyone gets out.
- With the gimmick of the physical long map... The map will physically scroll to advance on its own clock, indicating area that has been 'lost' to the invasion. The PCs can go closer to escape at their own pace, but the 'back' rolls up behind them regularly. Again, I wish I could playtest this to say a good pace, and maybe it's something I can play by ear or do based on how many orcs have gotten on the map. I like the idea of keeping up pressure, and I can't fit my entire map on the table we play on anyway.
- With the increase in the number (and decrease in the difficulty to kill) this advance front of invading orcs, I'm not sure if I want to change how VIPs work. Keep the specific details to rescue each of them, and just spread them out along my new map? I'm open to advice, but this might be just me reporting back one day about how that went.
Myself and my players enjoy rolled stats, and rolling them publicly as part of our Session Zero is always an exciting part of character creation.
The current method I prefer tries to keep the party balanced amongst themselves. I can always up the encounter difficulty if they get good rolls, but it sucks when one player gets a great stat spread and someone else is struggling.
I have everyone roll for their set of six attributes, and then any player can take any spread that any other player rolled. (When rolling, I have everyone use the 'roll 4d6 drop the lowest and roll 7 times and drop the lowest' rules but that part doesn't matter as much here).
What I want to do is combine the rolling of stats into playing games at the Cheat the Devil and Take His Gold tournament! I think it will give us an excuse to roleplay more of the tournament and practice bantering in-character while we get excited about everyone's stat rolls.
I'm wondering what you all think of this idea. What's the percentages, if I should tweak some numbers, or how you'd do it. Or if someone just wants to steal this idea in the future, go for it!
Right now, I'm thinking having the rolling of a stat (4d6) represent how that character did in a round of gambling. I'm deciding between two options for 'winning' the hand and moving on to the next 'circle of hell.' The quick and dirty method: you need to roll a stat above a set amount (say, above a 14) to win the hand and move on. The more convoluted method I could use to simulate gambling wins or losses. In this method you're trying to 'come out ahead' where a 1 or 2 on any dice is falling behind, 3 or 4 is neutral, and 5 or 6 is ahead. The net on your four dice needs to be 'ahead' and you move on with your winnings. But if the net is behind or even, those can affect your character's gambling winnings too!
I suppose a final issue would be that there are not enough stats for the circles of Hell listed in the 'contract' the players receive. But also, the tournament is destined to be interrupted, so maybe that's fine. We can just see who gets the furthest in the time they have!
Hi fellow DMs and creative sorts. I have a plan I want to share for a mash up of Book 1 of Return of the Runelords and Shadow in the Sky from Second Darkness. Feedback is welcome, as is using the notes we work out here for you game. Players who have yet to complete Shadow in the Sky or Secrets of Rodric’s Cove are advised to stop reading this thread.
Okay!
So I’m sure my group will never play Second Darkness as written. But I like the scenario of working for a failing gambling hall at the start. Also, unlike other APs, the opening hook of Return doesn’t feel like it gives the PCs a strong excuse to be in the Circle Market when the opening hook happens. So I plan to open Return with a gambling tournament and use the Second Darkness traits as session zero hooks to get everyone on site.
Obviously things change significantly from there.
Here’s my mash up plan as it stands.:
1) Open with the gambling tournament at the Gold Goblin
2) The Gold Goblin is now run by “Gold” Gildersleeves
3) The robbery is a legit attempt. Bouncers wear the horned fang gang symbol. Possibly select other staff?
3a) Possibly robbery is done by Roadkeepers to mirror the Circle Market event
3b) Or it’s random upstarts or someone else cool I haven’t thought of yet. Either way the haunting starts at a later time below
4) When the PCs are offered room and board and a stake in the Gold Goblin, Jes is thinking she’ll test them out to deal with her sinspawn problem and keeps that business seperate.
5) Any dead theives are taken by the PCs to the graveyard where they connect or reconnect with Audrahni, who warns them the PCs were hired to replace ‘employees’ killed under mysterious circumstances
6) Investigating the murder of their predecessors happens alongside the initial Shadows in the Sky tasks and rolls for profitability
7) Samaritha Beldusk is in town for the Order of Resplendence (but they’re holed up after the murder)
8) After the initial gambling hall tasks and investigations are ready to get kicked into the next phase, ‘the siege’ event of Roadkeepers attacking is interrupted by Roderic’s ghost.
9) the book continues but with The Gold Goblin as a common base and Jes’ hidden motivation being about her gang being taken over
Anyone who's worried about spoilers has left? This one isn't major, but I want to give people fair warning.
Okay!
Some of you may be familiar with the Microscope RPG (http://www.lamemage.com/microscope/) which is a GM-less game of creating and exploring histories. I was inspired by the 10,000 years that Runeforge is cut off from the material plane, especially the Halls of Wrath where the book describes 'a highly successful warrior society' and that 'hundreds of generations have passed' compared to most of the wings where it seems the survivors had to become immortal in some way, and thus were relatively unchanged except for sinking into their corruption.
With a couple of my usual players out for a session, I have decided to run a round of Microscope to look at those hundreds of generations in Wrath!
I'm going to use the seed statement:
"The Halls of Wrath are isolated after the fall of Thassilon for hundreds of generations"
The starting period is:
"The fall of Thassilon cuts off Runeforge from the outside world. The denizens of Wrath do not pursue extended lifespans or immortality"
The ending period is:
"Their numbers diminished, the remains of a warrior society in the Halls of Wrath are led by Highlady Athroxis"
I figure if I set up the core boss fight as something that must be true (Athroxis), I could tweak what they find in Wrath to reflect the history we end up building together. The survivors in Wrath are also the only (most likely?) Runeforge residents who can actually leave as well, so exploring more about their history might make my players think about them as more than just targets for attacks, and think about what happens if they spare them and want to help them resettle out in the Material Plane.
I'm also not 100% stuck to making Highlady Athroxis a required part of the story if you think it would be more fun to leave it totally open-ended? I'm already choosing to leave out the 'why' of fighting Abjuration so we can decide for ourselves why there aren't enough people left in Wrath to sustain hundreds of generations of breeding stock.
Feel free to comment or give suggestions, to steal the idea for a Microscope round of your own, or stick around to see how it goes. I'll try and post something about the results, even if it's 'well that didn't work because of ___.'
I'm running Rise of the Runelords for my long term group, but we've got 6, maybe 8 sessions left before we have to take a looong hiatus. We tend to manage only one combat per session, and that's if we haven't gotten too hung up on puzzles and ethical dilemmas first...
I'd like to aim it so the party gets to defeat Mokmurian before we go on hiatus, but... We only just got up the Storval Stairs and tracked the giants back to Jorgenfist, and there are so many encounters to go! I'm going to need to cut things, possibly dynamically as I see how far we're getting and how fast.
So, I have three angles to this situation you can help me with...
1) What were your favorite encounters once in Jorgenfist through the end of Book 4? Ignoring everything else, what would you want to make sure we all experience?
(My party loves story and plot connections most of all, but everyone enjoys memorable combats)
2) Any homebrew cleverness or mechanics you experienced or heard about to not lose the feel of the army or fortress being massive and well prepared without having to fight our way deeper every ten feet (so to speak)? IE if I'm dropping the number of combat encounters to save on time, what are other ways this could feel like a dangerous and populated enemy fortress?
3) There's a lot of physical ground to cover too. Favorite or least favorite ways to move a party quickly through a dungeon, or facilitate skipping if we're falling behind on pacing? Make the map smaller, give them a copy of the map so there's less puttering around... Teleports or gaseous form potions?
TIA for your help brainstorming and remembering options that might be out there.
TL;dr - tell me about a single session you played that was a good bonding experience for characters in a party getting to know each other.
I have a new player joining my long term campaign. He's been playing side games with me and some of the group for about a year, and with availability opening up in my main campaign I wanted to invite him in. We've already had him pick up the role of a known NPC for easier integration, had the session where we introduced him, and the other players are great.
So there isn't a problem I'm trying to solve per se. I want to be proactive in recognizing the main game has two years of backstory and character bonding, and make use of a few game mastery shortcuts to connect our new arrival.
I have a session coming up that's going to be light on attending players, so I'd like to do a bit of side content to provide a bonus bonding experience for newbie and two of our established players/characters. Think of it like when in Avatar: The Last Airbender when Zuko joined the crew as an ally and had several episodes with special missions bonding with the other characters ;) New player is a scholarly monk woman with a lot of good punching, who will be joined by a boy wizard and a Shoanti paladin.
Since I don't have a ton of prep time left before the game (it's tomorrow!), anyone have recommendations, or remember, scenarios or encounters they've played that had memorable bonding experiences? Or examples of things that happened in your groups that were good for a small group to experience together and bond over? I can put work into the session, just want a starting place or a leg up to push me in the right direction.
Background: My consistent gaming group has played a number of Pathfinder AP's in a consistent world, but it just so happens we haven't touched Riddleport.
I noticed Roderic's Cove seems to be limited to Book 1, but events touch Riddleport in the later books.
Since the other locations that are affected by events later in the AP will all be meaningful to my players, I was thinking of making Book 1 actually take place in Riddleport to help set that scene and bring it to life before the PCs have reason to care.
Any advice? Warnings? Pitfalls? Opinions?
My thought would be making Roderic's Cove a 'decent' neighborhood in Riddleport (with the setting description of details like 'no homeless' and 'minor crime') that enjoys less attention from Riddleport's seedy elements because of Sir Roderic's influence (in life and death).
Just got Book 1 of Return of the Runelords, and I'm thrilled. Can't wait to be off work for my weekend and dig in!
The outlines and bits I've skimmed raise a question for me. Will any more of the 'Seven Swords of Sin' be relevant to the official plot? I noticed the Sword of Wrath is illustrated prominently, and the background material mentioned the Sword of Pride.
I've been working from some of the community inspired material on the forums here to introduce more of the Seven Swords of Sin into my current Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star gaming. Plus I don't have Pathfinder Society active in my area, so I don't know if there's existing scenarios or modules out there that already cover anything (Except Greed from Rise), and I'm not sure if 'Seven Swords of Sin' from Gen Con is still canon.
Nothing has been named in my game so far, so I feel safe. But something could be done that can't logically be undone.
I'd love a preview or recommendation of which swords I might need to, say, leave out of my current campaign so I don't cross wires with the new material.
Hi Customer service! I've had an uncompleted order sitting in my cart since you got the website back up and I'd like some next steps.
I want to start up my subscription with AP 133 (Return of the Runelords 1: Secrets of Rodric's Cove). I selected that with the button on the subscription page, and again with the button in the card itself when finalizing the order to check out. But it doesn't seem to 'stick'. Before I hit Place Your Order I see that it's switched back to AP 132 (Six Legend Soul) every time.
I already own Six Legend Soul, there's a lovely physical copy sitting in my office.
How do I start a subscription on AP 133? Do I place an order and you manually change it? Can I place an order over the phone?
I'd love to give you money, and I know you're having a hard time with website issues. I'm also So Excited for the next AP!
I've enjoyed listening to RPG game podcasts in my free time, and reading campaign journals for the APs I DM or have previously played in. They make me happy ^_^
I DM'd Curse of the Crimson Throne recently with my gaming group and had such an awesome time that everyone wanted our next campaign to be a sequel to it.
I found some great ways for plot points that happened in our CotCT campaign to carry over and influence Rise of the Runelords as a *sequel* - for example the encounter with Cindermaw in History of Ashes resulted in starting a full religion to Cindermaw. One of our PCs for Rise of the Runelords will be Cindermaw's first paladin.
The campaign is based on the Anniversary Edition of Rise of the Runelords, with influence from the forums, my player's backstories, and overall DM editing. The campaign and group have been solid for four years, and there's the potential for this to continue into another sequel campaign if the players and audience are into it.
My players have given their permission for me to record sessions and post, and Syrinscape has a full RotRL soundtrack with permission for podcast use as long as you give credit for extra awesome audible experiences... So I just want to check in here. Does anyone want to listen if I post weekly audio sessions instead of typing it up as most do here?
Caveats: No one is famous ;) We do have a mix of men and women playing with a range of voices, and decent (though not pro) audio equipment to record our in-person sessions. I think we have something valuable to offer with sharing RotRL as it can be run *after* CotCT. Plus for your enjoyment: as a group, we're more into the story than math, and I'm committed to editing out the side-talk and as many Uhhhs as possible. If my CotCT campaign is any indication, there's a lot of IC conversation and character development - this will include more emotional story points and character beats than a good recording of mechanics.
Let me know. I'll start recording audio so we don't miss out.
I'd love to get ideas, evidence, and opinions from the writers and fellow DMs. For a variety of reasons, including his 'being seen as a god' growing more significant in my campaign, I'm fleshing out Cindermaw quite a bit.
One of the main questions - Can anyone help clarify for me how old Cindermaw is? I see things like 'creature of legend' and
other details players might not want to read:
'ate a Thassilonian portal of elemental fire'. Could I assume Cindermaw dates to Thassilonian times, since he ate functioning Thassilonian magic?
Are there other markers to help a DM aim for at least the right era? Old is good, declaring things true for my own game is fine, I only want to make sure I don't break in game world logic for something else.
Plus anything else you have all come up with related to Cindermaw could be fun or useful to read!
I'm running Curse of the Crimson Throne, and having a blast making everyone's character choices take center stage in the story. We're getting pretty far into the 2nd module, and I want to be prepared for something:
Two of my players chose to make their characters members of the Sable Company. One, a Ranger, took the archetype that will give him his Hippogriff as an official animal companion. Nice and straightforward.
The other player went Fighter, which is also a reasonably logical choice, and the party needed it. For plot fun, I prefer to have them each taking care of their own Hippogriff mount. I know from experience a 'purchased' base Hippogriff mount from the book is not going to last...
I'm willing to let the fighter take the Leadership feat for purposes of making the Hippogriff her cohort only.
What I'd like to know is if there is a better method I should consider, perhaps one that could set the Hippogriff up as a proper animal companion? Or, if not, how to advance the hippogriff cohort. Fighter levels? Barbarian? It won't get intelligence like an animal companion or familiar, so I'm guessing the group will be making a lot of handle animal checks. I just want the beastie to survive and occasionally be useful, not crazy optimized.
First a quick clarification: This is a custom craft project for a gift, not a product in development.
I'm making a custom folding wood GM's screen, and I want as much input as possible from other GMs and players - what would make it awesome? What would be useful to you?
This is going to be freestanding, three wood panels, hinged so it can fold flat. One side will of course face the players so players could benefit from it, one side would be for the GM only. Due to the limitation of folding flat, there is only one side panel for the GM and one side panel for the players that can have 'stuff' sticking up off it if needed.
I've thought of a few things so far. Please feel free to weigh in, or add something you want to see. For example as I'm a player making this gift for a GM, I don't know what kind of rules or references or tools everyone likes to have.
So far:
- Initiative tracker
- Round tracker
- Metal surface with magnets for buffs/debuffs/conditions in effect
- Dry-erase surface
- Some way to attach notes?
So I don't play EVE online, but I stumbled across the following article. http://io9.com/space-opera/ Wherein an accident sent a capital ship into enemy territory, alliances were called upon, favors pulled, and 3,000 people spent hours fighting out a spontaneous epic space battle.
Or to quote what especially caught my attention:
Quote:
What's even more interesting is the capacity for open-ended games like EVE Online to create emergent stories. Nothing was prescripted about the storylines that lead to the battle -– not the alliances, the mining conglomerate, the bad blood between the groups, or the events of the battle itself. EVE creates a set of economic and military factors and lets the players run loose. The stories (and battles) occur organically. Similar things have happened with other sandbox style games, such as DayZ, where your struggles to survive among ranveous zombies and hostile players can lead to bizarre, thrilling or even emotionally resonant stories.
Major events happened naturally... Reading about what happened on EVE just makes me excited about what better, more interesting, naturally emerging epic events are going to happen in our own story. Especially because there's so much more to the PFO world than just economics and military systems.
To set the scene, I have home-brewed a beer. (It's an english style ale if anyone is curious.) I will be bottling it any day now, soon as the ferment is finished... And I want to print a clever 'label' for the beers my group can chuckle over at game night, with the likeness of Cayden Cailean on it.
(I'm under the assumption that Paizo won't mind me printing off images of everyone's favorite 'Lucky Drunk' for my personal use glued on the side of my beer. But this is a really good time to tell me otherwise.)
I am also, sadly, artistically handicapped. It's bad. Aside from photocopying the mugshot from Faiths of Purity and cutting it out with scissors, is there art out there I can use? Anyone done something similar or seen something cool they can share with me? Any artists want to tell me the polite way to ask someone 'hey, can I print your art on my beer bottle?' so I can do the right thing?
I might even follow up with pics in the future if it turns out awesome... At the least, the idea *feels* awesome right now.
